Our little science experiment is getting crazy! We used clear green plastic bottles of Sprite today, so that we'd be able to see the bubbles on the side of the bottle. I tapped and I tapped, targeting the ares on the side of the bottle where there were the most bubbles. However, when it came time to open my bottle vs. the bottle that had merely sat still for a minute, foamy liquid erupted out of my bottle, and the other foamed a little without spilling over. What gives?

It's beginning to look as though tapping on soda cans/plastic bottles makes things worse. You heard me. Worse. Perhaps sending the bubbles to the top creates more pressure and makes it so the CO₂ is more dispersed throughout the liquid? I'm not sure. This is all very confounding. Tomorrow, we'll make sure to compare the level of the liquid and see if there's actually more air/gas at the top of either bottle. Also, the twist off caps make it difficult to know whether pressure was released at the same rate or not, so we're going to have to start switching bottles from day to day and hope that we're consistent.

For science!

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I have four words for you: Bat Boy: The Musical. We got to go to the invited dress rehearsal last night, and the show absolutely rules! If you hate theater or hate musicals, I'd say you still have a chance of liking Bat Boy. It was hilarious. If you don't like things that are a bit odd, or if you've never glanced and snickered at the headlines of the Weekly World News while in line at the checkout counter, or if you have no sense of humor, well, maybe stay home. Otherwise, go see it! (Of course, it might be kind of hard if you're not in Portland or another city where the musical is running).

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So, I'm curious: where do you come down on the emoticon issue? There seems to be a pretty big backlash against them, but I still use smiley faces every now and again. I agree that they can be over-used, but I think they can help with the fact that it's so hard to convey emotion via email. They can also turn what might be interepreted as a rather snotty sentence or paragraph into something more playful. Though I am somewhat resistant to anything but the basic smiley and the (very) occasional wink.

I blame the backlash on the graphical representation of emoticons that are seen in instant messengers and some message boards. It took me a long time to get used to the emoticons on Yahoo! IM, and I still occasionally get ticked off when I type a little smiley and it comes up with a big goofy yellow face. But I'm mostly used to that now.

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I was at an elementary school today, where I go on Thursdays to read to little kids for the SMART program. One of the kids I read with, a kindergartner, showed me how her braids double as alien antennae.

"Aliens are our ancestors," she told me.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yep. Also, fish. Aliens and fish are our ancestors."

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Over the weekend, I went to the wedding of one of my favorite people from high school and my new favorite friend-in-law. Actually, I'd like to think she's just a friend. Forget the in-law stuff.

Congratulations again, Josh and Corie. I'm so happy for you both!

There were so many beautiful things about the weekend. Like, for instance:

• Indian summer was in full swing, and the leaves were turning -- the scenery, especially in the wine country, was outstanding. Also, temperatures were in the 70's and 80's the whole time. Even I couldn't complain that it wasn't raining.
• I got to spend time with several of my friends from high school, and one from junior high. They're all such insanely cool, wonderful people -- just knowing them makes me feel good about myself.
• The bride and groom wrote their own vows, and they were incredibly sweet and moving.
• I went by the house in Sonoma where we lived when I was between the ages of four and nine. It's a realty office now, so it's changed a bit, but the old barn is still there, as is the field we used to play in out behind the barn. Also, the cherry tree didn't get paved over like the rest of the back yard -- it produces the best bing cherries ever; I climbed it numerous times for a summer snack. The back yard is where I chased our dog around and played tag and hide and seek with my sister and our friends. It's where I learned to tie my shoes and to ride a bike.
• I stayed with another friend from high school and his wife. I got to see his new house and his new puppy dog. I heartily approve of both.
• One of the wedding guests found out who my dad is and confessed to having a HUGE crush on him in junior high. She looooved him. So I get to tease my dad about being a heartbreaker.

But now, it's back to work. We'll be able to pick up our exciting scientific research again, too! I know you've been eagerly awaiting more test results.

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There's this little piece of paper (about 1 ½" X 3") that floats around my house. On one side the following words are printed:

The animals in this collection have been packed into the bucket and sealed. As you remove the animals from the bucket, you may notice a slight "plastic" odor. Once the animals have been exposed to air for a while, this odor will disappear.
The odor is a result of the animals being sealed in the bucket during transit. Please remove the package before giving it to your child.

On the opposite side, I wrote the words:

moose mitti comeeting

after my mom misspoke on the phone when talking about a committee meeting at the moose lodge.

It's been here for about four months, and I still haven't thrown it away. I take it as evidence that I am far too easily amused.

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My friend Woody sent me a link to this article about introversion. It made me happy. Because I'm an introvert.

I especially like the possibly-Coolidge quote, ""Don't you know that four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?"

I don't think I'm as much of an introvert as the author, though -- I don't really want everyone to shut up all the time. I actually enjoy inane banter, especially when I'm not part of it and I can just sort of sit back and listen. People say some pretty funny things when they're not paying attention.

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I feel like whining and complaining today. You probably shouldn't read this.

I'm tired. I didn't get to sleep until 2:30, after playing a volleyball game at 9:00 at night. During the game, I was up blocking and the ball bent my pinky backwards, so it hurts. I wonder if it's sprained. I wonder if I can get out of work because of it. I wish the answer wasn't definitely no. I have too much work to do before I go on vacation. My back hurts because I've been hunched over sewing a skirt for the last couple of days (not sure why I thought that was such a good idea). The hem is kind of fucked up. Also, my toe hurts. It's the one that broke in sixth grade when another kid dropped a desk on it. On top of all that, I can't have real coffee, and when I went to get my fake coffee (decaf), there was a new woman working there. She was way too chirpy and wore too much makeup and made me want to spit at her. On the way to the coffee shop, I got hit by a car. Okay, not really, but it at least would have made this post interesting. So much to do, so little time, so tired, so ouchy, so grumpy. Ugh.

At least it's raining.

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So, I threw up a little page for Photo Friday pictures. The photos will also show up in the rotation of pictures at the top of this page. This week's topic was translucent.

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The spider was on its back, looking foolish. I'm not sure whether my cat was the culprit -- it looked like he was going to play with the spider, but he never does much more than look. Then, because he's cross-eyed, he usually loses whatever he's looking at, gets bored, and moves on.

But back to the spider. I had gotten a pice of paper to take the spider outside before I noticed he was on his back. I used this paper to flip him back over, but it took some doing, what with him kicking his legs and all (and me not wanting to rip them off -- it was a delicate operation). With the spider upright and walking, I put the paper on the ground in front of him so he would walk onto it. In trying to get on the paper, the spider reared up on his back legs and fell over onto his back again.

Dumbest. Spider. Ever.

It's the most clumsy thing I've ever seen a spider do. It took me a little longer to flip him over the second time because my cat kept rubbing his head on my hand and the paper. I finally got the spider on the paper and took him outside. I imagine he's out there on his back right now, wishing he didn't get up this morning.

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Another thing I can do while writing my "novel" this November is use words from my site's referrer list when I run out of things to say. For instance, say I'm stuck in the middle of an emotional scene and I'm having trouble figuring out where to go next. I can just whip over to my site stats and choose from words like:

girl
car
rocket
nerdy
a
pirate
the
underwear
nerdygirl
rebecca
haiku
penis
to
soapbox
is
wilfred
brimley
fuck
in
viagra
with
spam
and
like
talk
how
little
what
build
of

Some of it reads well on its own. Like "pirate the underwear." I'm sure I can work that into my story somehow.

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Recipes of the Damned. Maybe I should throw a dinner party.

Ooh, and this is some seriously cool Lego work. (Link via particleman.)

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Some things:

• Sarge has a blog of his own now.
• Chris' ninja haiku is totally sweet. It kicks some serious ass.
• I'm finding it odd that words that appear in crossword puzzles are also cropping up in conversations. Weird words, like Tantalus.
• I just found out about photo friday (via timmie tv). It looks super cool.

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